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Prep’s Robotics program has been awarded a grant from Engineering Tomorrow, a group established in 2014 to “solve pressing challenges facing our world” and inspire “high school students with no-cost, hands-on engineering labs and mentorship.”

Credit goes to Prep mathematics instructor Ms. Pangilinan-Riel, who spearheads Prep’s robotics program. She reached out to Engineering Tomorrow and secured the packets of electronics, which she covers in class with the eighth-grade robotics students, along with workbooks and an online meeting with an expert. The grant includes four different sets for the school year.

Pangilinan-Riel says she has students first build the kits and do research so they are really prepared for the online meeting and can ask more advanced questions and take real advantage of the interaction. And she explains that the kits provide students with an invaluable “jump start in electronics” so when the time comes to build robotics for competition, they are ready.

As students build the kits, Pangilinan-Riel encourages them to work out their theories and find the boundaries between the idealistic and the realistic – what they imagine and what they can actually build.

While a peek into her classroom might look like a Lego dreamscape, behind the bricks and table games are some really big ideas. The class is preparing for FIRST LEGO League competition next month, with the theme “Bioglow.” The focus is on biodiversity, natural ecosystems and conservation, and it tasks students with exploring how nature, technology and innovation interconnect. Teams are challenged to develop nature-inspired technology to help global ecosystems thrive.

Prep’s students have two projects in development: a Tingley Beach Monitoring System and an Elephant Enclosure Monitoring System. The students’ prototypes build on lessons learned from those Engineering Tomorrow kits and use controllers, pressure switches, laser sensors, micro server motors, cameras and more to deliver systems that include everything from gate controls and geese deterrents; to illegal fishing and trash oversight; to temperature, humidity and food and water alerts. The designs go far beyond snapping bricks together – students are researching, engineering and soldering, too.

Hopes for a strong showing at the local, state and international levels of the competition are running high, as last year’s robotics class won first place in the Pit Challenge and major honors at the Canada Cup of Robotics FIRST LEGO League International Finals in Ontario, Canada. Pangilinan-Riel says that team’s students, now in ninth-grade, are coaching the current class.

It’s been a quick ascent to the top, as when Pangilinan-Riel joined Prep in August 2024 she launched a middle school robotics activity club. Under her guidance, Prep has become a robotics powerhouse; here’s a quick recap of the honors earned:

* In fall 2024, students qualified for the international RoboJam All Stars World Finals and finished sixth overall.

* By spring 2025, Prep students had earned an Honorable Mention in ExploraVision and multiple awards at the New Mexico Botball Regional Tournament, including Third Place Overall, the KISS Award, Judges Choice and First Place Double Elimination.

* Prep also quickly became a leader within the state robotics community, earning a 50 percent scholarship grant for Botball participation and being selected to host a regional qualifying tournament just months after entering the competition circuit.

* In summer 2025, the team won Rookie of the Year at the Global Conference on Educational Robotics (GCER) Botball Internationals in Oklahoma.

*During the 2025-26 school year, students earned multiple top finishes in the RoboRAVE International Virtual League, including first-, second- and third-place finishes in their division.

*As mentioned, Prep’s 2026-2027 FIRST LEGO League team emerged as one of the strongest programs in New Mexico, winning Robot Design Awards at both qualifying and state competitions, placing fifth overall at state, qualifying for the international finals in Canada and winning first place in the Pit Challenge and major honors.

*Students also found success in combat robotics, earning a first-place overall finish at the 2026 Miner Mayhem Battle Bot competition at New Mexico Tech in Socorro.

*Prep’s upper school team is also one of just 10 schools participating in the New Mexico Artificial Intelligence Academy.

In addition to her teaching responsibilities, Pangilinan-Riel is working with her contacts at Engineering Tomorrow to develop more advanced versions of their kits and brainstorming on getting appropriate, customized labs that will keep students engaged and take them to the next level of engineering.

Just three years in, Pangilinan-Riel’s level of dedication, networking and hands-on teaching promises to make Prep’s program, and thus its students, even stronger in the STEM fields. Congratulations on the grant, and good luck to our students next month!